CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING

Change management and implementation planning are two descriptions of the same application. In either case, we seek to move teams, departments or whole organizations from a current state to a new state. In every case, the challenge is to understand what change is needed, to frame it in terms that can be achieved, and then move the behavior of many individuals and groups toward the desired state.

The Six Boxes Approach is a perfect way of conducting implementation planning or change management. First, using the Performance Chain, we work backwards from the organizational results we seek to achieve to the outputs or accomplishments that different people will need to produce. In some cases, these might be cultural end-states, while in others they might be more operational, as in process or policy implementation. Once we decide who needs to accomplish what in order for change to be deemed successful, we identify the needed behavior for each functional role and then use The Six Boxes Model to plan for the behavior influences needed to ensure and sustain the needed change.

The results of applying The Six Boxes Approach for change management or implementation include executable programs for achieving the desired change and successful accomplishment of those programs, achieved through changes in behavior. Business results can include greater operational efficiency or customer satisfaction, successful mergers or acquisitions, increased market share or competitiveness, and so on.

Change management and implementation planning are typical projects for participants in the Six Boxes Application Program. We often work with senior management to implement new strategies as part of the Six Boxes Management Development Program. And adoption of Six Boxes Performance Thinking across an organization is an opportunity to use The Six Boxes Approach to implement itself in that organization, from the top down and from the inside out.